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31 December 2011

I like it when she gets saucy on us. This is the only Mette-Marit appearance that truly made my jaw drop this year. What can I say? Sometimes you have to wait a while between stunners from her, but she's got some serious game when she feels like playing it.

Well, let's be honest here: our V's had a rough sartorial year, particularly since the baby's come on board. Poor love. The best of that tough time, then, must make my best list: the Nobel Prize ceremony. Blingy, fitted, and blingy again. Done and done.

30 December 2011

It's been a good royal year, hasn't it? What fun we've had {insert contented sigh here}. It's time for some (more) nostalgia, this time about our favorite things. Not necessarily sartorial, for once. These are a few of my favorite things:

My favorite royal of the year...drumroll please...is Princess Isabella of Denmark. Awww yeah. From Isabella's entertaining antics to the grouchy stylings of Grace van Cutsem, this year seemed to bring an extra dose of moments when important grown-up royal happenings were paused for a dose of cuteness. I'm all for anyone that doesn't take everything so freaking seriously all. the. time.

My favorite royal trend of the year...has to be all the love for the not-so-popular royals. The Windsors have, for a very long time, been the best-known and most popular royal family, internationally speaking. But this year, some of that extra attention thrown their way seems to have spilled over to some of the other royal families on the block. My inbox fills more and more with requests to feature non-European royals here on this site (I'll be working on that in the new year, I promise). As someone who has always needed more bling and action than the British royal family alone can provide, I give this movement a big ol' round of jumpy claps.

My favorite royal couple of the year...is definitely Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. There were lots of wonderful tours this year: the Cambridges in North America, a whole bunch of visits from the Dutch royals, the Danes in Australia. But I think my favorites have been those undertaken by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. They received a warm welcome in Australia and made a truly historic stop in Ireland that seemed to reaffirm just why the Queen is the best in the run up to her diamond jubilee year. And sartorially speaking, it's always nice to feature her here. We debate so much, and people take such strong stands on the other royals; the warmth that her lifetime pass brings out is wonderful to see. More, please, in the Year of the Diamond Jubilee - and a big sigh of relief that Prince Philip's doing okay and will be right there with her. There's no better dynamic duo around.

My favorite royal thing of the year...is royal weddings. Just all of them, anything to do with them, I'm not picky. I won't try to name any particular moment of any particular royal wedding this year as a favorite, but I'll just say that the wealth of wedded bliss this year has been fantastic. For all the goodies its brought us to discuss, yes; but also for the numbers of you that have joined the party here because of one royal wedding or another. It really is so much more fun with all of you here, chiming in, making sure I don't feel like a crazy person, talking to myself. I hope you know that each and every comment and email makes my day, even when we don't agree. Anyway, I fear we're going to go into withdrawal in 2012...let's all wish hard we get one or two big ones to delight in.

In a year ruled by navy and beige and blergh, there's no way the most aggressive use of color all year wasn't getting a special mention from me, the eternal color cheerleader. This is a stunning shape on Mary, and slyly interesting in its color combo. A+.

This is the part where you tell me it's unfair to include this appearance - but too bad kittens, a tiara appearance is a tiara appearance. You can omit it from your own personal voting criteria if you like. Thus, Kate makes her lone entry in our game wearing the Halo Scroll Tiara while doing the laundry (was that not it?).

Letizia, Princess of Asturias

Woe is Letizia! Only one wee tiara appearance for the whole year, during the state visit from Chile, in some major hair and the Prussian Diamond Tiara.

Poor Mathilde. No government for nearly the whole year means no incoming state visits, I suppose, and little opportunity to bust out one's bling. Good girl, then, for squeezing in a tiara appearance at the wedding of William and Catherine by sporting her Laurel Wreath Tiara as a necklace, and then as a proper tiara at Albert and Charlene's wedding ball.

See what I did there? Are you on to my game? Yeah...I picked out most of the colorful Charlene appearances for the year. She's been such a festival of beige n' black n' gray this year (let's just call this collectively the blergh color family from now on), I had to go for the two lusciousgreens and the hot pink - which, even though I still think her makeup was tragic, was the best in color for her all year. Color! It's essential for the blondes, these are things I know first hand! Also making my runners up are kicky prints and youthful stripes. And I made two exceptions from the blergh color family for her princess perfect appearance at Westminster Abbey and her chic National Day day outfit. See, when you do it right, all is well...just don't do it exclusively, is all I'm saying.

Boom! The late entry wins the game at the buzzer! Yeah, I lurve it. The dress is just divine, I think this is the most flattering thing she wore the whole year. Like so many of you noted, I have some reservations about the necklace (I'd take the ruby flower deals off, that's too wee and twee for my tastes), but: she wore it. And what did I say about that? Step 1: put the diamonds on. Step 2: do other things. Here's hoping for a blingy new year!

Runners Up

I love a killer shoe and I love purple - these are not secrets well kept. Therefore, the very first Kate appearance of the year must make my list of runners up. Nods also go to what I found to be two of her most young, fresh, and feminine takes on the old school jacket and dress/skirt combo, the blue and black and the crochet look (which I know some of you will very much disagree with me on). At the time of the big tour, I favored her lilac Roksanda Ilicnic dress, but fickle me has now switched my affections to the twirly purple McQueen. The pink Jenny Packham was actually going to be my #1 until the black velvet slinked in at the buzzer because, well, I love a sparkly "Look at me!" number. I just do. Sue me.

And then there's the wedding gown. The wedding gown is in here simply because I recognize that it would be ludicrous not to include it, though I still agree with my first impressions. Thus, I include my favorite view: the train, which is and was perfection.

No, this is about public relations. Katemania dictates that everything she wears will be analyzed to death and just a hair beyond that, and there's nothing she can do to stop it. It's a monster, and it's coming for all of us. But the newest Duchess on the block is a careful player in the sartorial game. She's done her best to restrain the debate over her outfits...except for this one. Debuting a pricey ensemble on this particular occasion was a misstep. I don't care if it personally offended you or not (it didn't bother me), but it was a rare PR mistake, and for that, I hereby dub it the Worst of the Year.

27 December 2011

2011 is almost over, can you believe it? (No.) It's time to glance back at the year behind us and start looking ahead to the next, friends.

2011 in Review

Starting tomorrow, we begin wrapping up the year. Each royal lady that receives a Week in Review post here will also get a 2011 in Review post with my picks for her best and worst outfits. Start racking your brains, I'll be eager to hear your picks as well. Our other features this week will also have a year in review theme to them, because a little nostalgia never hurt anyone.

What's Coming Up in 2012

If 2011 was the Year of the Royal Wedding, 2012 is shaping up to be the Year of the Jubilee. I'm sure we're all looking forward to the events surrounding Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, but Queen Margrethe will go first with the celebrations for her Ruby Jubilee (that's a whopping 40 years on the throne).

Since there are so many jubilee celebrations, I thought it might be somewhat entertaining to take a look back at how some of our favorite sovereigns got there in the first place. Every monarchy handles the ceremony of inducting a new head differently; some are somber, some are glittering, many are a mix. As we hit the anniversaries of some of those accessions, we'll be looking back to where they began. We'll also glance back at how they've celebrated their jubilees to date, to add a little context to this year's various celebrations.

There's just loads going on in the coming royal year, so to help us all keep it straight, I've added a new page to the blog: Upcoming Events. This is a brief listing of the biggest royal events throughout the year (not every individual appearance, mind you, just those that usually get special coverage here in one way or another). Right now it has events we know are coming up, some of the big anniversaries and birthdays coming up, plus those annual shindigs that received a Royal Fashion Awards post from me in 2011. Further events will be added and detailed as the year goes on.

Arriving for the annual big fat royal Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, 19 December. Anybody up for a round of Caption This? Here's my entry: "I'm in a car, the windows are blurred with rain, you can't see past my shoulders...are you seriously going to try and analyze my outfit? Seriously?"

a) Visiting Centrepoint, 21 December, in b) a Ralph Lauren sweater dress. Would've stuck with the brown accessories myself, but I think black is her default. But what's the point of getting all dressed up when you're just going to be out-dorked by your hubs anyway?

While the world awaits a lil' Cambridge announcement, Prince William perfects his embarrassing dad dance moves.

UPDATE: Kate and Harry watched William play football on Christmas Eve in a sweater from Temperley London, a jacket from LK Bennett, and Le Chameau boots.

Attending the annual formal gathering of the Swedish Academy at the Stock Exchange in Stockholm, 20 December. Well, I mean, if you're going to go this far...tiara it up, man! I know, I know, that's the dress code's fault. Anyway, V gets points for adding a little hair bling, and also for wearing a dress that fits! Yay.

26 December 2011

Well ho, ho, ho, friends: Christmas brought some of our favorite royals out to play. With Prince Philip still hospitalized but reportedly in good spirits, the British hit church on Christmas morning at Sandringham; meanwhile, Christmas Eve services were attended by the royal families in Norway and Denmark. It was an understated holiday all around, but that's never stopped us before...

Left to Right: Princess Eugenie, The Duchess of Cambridge, Zara Phillips. Click to enlarge.

On a low-key holiday, those that made an effort shall be commended. Eugenie is awarded for adding some Christmas-y color in, while Zara gets points for turning in the required amount of hat flair for a British royal event. Only Catherine did both, though, with her gorgeous wine coat and déjà vu hat. She wins the most festive award of the day.

Worst in Mismatched

The Duchess of Cornwall

L to R: The Duchess of Cornwall, The Princess Royal

Oh, the combos. Anne's slightly off hat-to-coat combo (what season are we in again?) is no match to what I am pretty sure are army green boots on Camilla. What a mishmash duo...and somehow, I'd expect no more from either.

I suppose there's a certain festiveness to a good tartan...alas, certain things are never quite as charming past a certain age. Lady Louise was cute as a button, Queen Margrethe was Queen Margrethe, and Autumn and Mary sadly furthered two of my least favorite trends right now: short maternity tents, and anything resembling a SHOOTIE. Sigh.

Ingrid's bow really was the best part of the whole Christmas appearance from the Norwegian royals, with Mette-Marit and Sonja blending right in. Lady Sarah did the same, but then again, understated is a permanent state for her. Understated is not at all Princess Beatrice's regular mode, but she managed to pull out the best-coordinated look of the non-looks.

Best in Retro

The Countess of Wessex

L to R: The Countess of Wessex, Viscountess Linley

Retro's tricky to do sometimes. Sophie's almost there, just a wee bit bigger on that pill box and we'd've had it, but Serena...well, she overdosed, poor dear. Though I'll say this: that's a hat.